


Ember Island Summer

by ForLoveOfShadows



Series: Portrait of a Family on Fire [1]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: (mostly), Adult Gaang (Avatar), Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Ember Island (Avatar), Family Drama, Flashbacks, Gaang Babies, Gen, I will add tags as I go, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Izumi (Avatar) - Centric, M/M, POV Alternating, Summer Vacation, Zuko-Centric (Avatar), ask to tag, the comics are a liar sometimes, the exposition kind not the ptsd kind
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:15:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29971050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForLoveOfShadows/pseuds/ForLoveOfShadows
Summary: It's been ten years since Izumi's papa woke her up at the crack of dawn to tell her he was leaving. Since then, Izumi and her father have only grown closer: they confide in each other, and share family traditions like their annual vacation to Ember Island.This year, however, Zuko has decided to invite everyone, not just Aang and Tenzin. All of his friends from the 100-Year War, even the ones who live on the other side of the world. Which means Izumi has to share her vacation with a bunch of people she barely knows.Not to mention Sokka.Izumi can talk to her dad about pretty much anything, but their life with Sokka is off-limits. No one knows that they were a family once. And maybe they weren’t--maybe Izumi is remembering it wrong. She was just a little kid after all. And she loves her dad, she doesn’t need another one. They don’t see Sokka very often since he lives all the way in Republic City, so it’s not that often that she has to be nice to him and pretend she doesn’t have all of these complicated feelings.All she has to do is get through the summer, with the grace and maturity that a Crown Princess is supposed to have.This may be harder than she thought...
Relationships: Izumi & Sokka (Avatar), Izumi & Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Portrait of a Family on Fire [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2204421
Comments: 23
Kudos: 54





	Ember Island Summer

**Author's Note:**

> Since posting my original idea on [tumblr](https://gaylord-zuko.tumblr.com/post/637687363627319297/one-of-my-wips-which-ive-been-calling-izumiverse) I have gotten so much support for this fic! I'm sorry it's taken so long to get it together, but I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it :D
> 
> I'm going to try my best to update weekly. (Wish me luck...)
> 
> Update: This fic _will_ have a happy ending, I promise!

_Izumi is woken up by her papa just before dawn. She knows something is wrong; he isn’t usually awake this early unless they’re taking a trip, and even then it’s usually her daddy waking her._

_“Hey, Princess Turtleduck,” Papa says softly as Izumi wipes the sleep from her eyes._

_She sits up and asks, “What is it, Papa?”_

_“Izumi, love, I have to go.” His voice is strained, like he has a sore throat._

_“Go where?” Izumi asks._

_“I’m going with Aunt Katara for a little while.”_

_“When are you coming back?”_

_Izumi sees the knot of his throat move. “I don’t know, love,” he says. He brushes a strand of hair back from her face. “I love you so much, Izumi. I need you to know that.”_

_“I love you too, Papa,” Izumi replies sleepily. “But why are you going? And why aren’t we going with you?”_

_Papa doesn’t answer at first. After a moment, he says quietly, almost to himself, “Someday you’ll understand.”_

_“Understand what?” Izumi is getting frustrated. Her papa doesn’t keep secrets. He doesn’t do things without telling her why._

_He wraps his arms around his daughter and holds her close. “I’ll always be your papa,” he whispers into her hair. He presses a kiss to her forehead, then lets go. Izumi lays down and goes back to sleep._

_When she wakes up again, her papa is gone._

* * *

People often remarked that Izumi and her father looked alike. “Except for the—”

“Scar,” they would say, if they were family or friends.

“...you know,” they would say if they weren’t.

Even without the scar, Izumi did look like her father. But it wasn’t the shape of her face or the color of her eyes or the sheen of her black hair, shoulder-length like his, that made people say so. It was the fact that they would often sit in the exact same position, just like they were now.

Neither father nor daughter did this consciously, but whatever sitting position one took, the other would mirror.

Like cats.

If there were anyone passing by on the beach that day, they would see the Fire Lord and the Crown Princess sitting together on the steps of their beach house—both with one leg crossed over the other, their hands folded neatly in their laps—and say, “You two look just alike!”

Izumi had been about 12 when she’d realized that she and her father mirrored each other. She had never pointed it out for fear that he would stop. It was comforting, the way their unspoken connection manifested sometimes. They were both more comfortable with quiet most of the time, and very uncomfortable with loneliness.

Izumi, unlike her father, was also uncomfortable with waiting. She’d been told that she got her impatience from him, but that was hard to believe when he was so frustratingly patient. Especially in moments like this, when their guests for the summer were several hours late.

“Tenzin’s brother’s name is Bumi, right?” she said, more to remind her father that time had passed than to start a conversation. Zuko nodded. “And his sister’s name is...Lin?”

“No, that’s Toph’s daughter.”

“Right, Toph.” Izumi filed the information in her memory: Lin, daughter of Toph (blind, grumpy, Republic City Police Chief, inventor of metalbending). More information about Lin would fit there. But for now she needed to keep track of her cousins—

 _Not cousins_ , she reminded herself.

“Tenzin and _Bumi’s_ sister’s name is...Kya!” she remembered.

Zuko looked over at her, his brow furrowed. “It can’t have been that long since you’ve seen them.”

Izumi shrugged. “Five years?”

“Really?” Zuko asked. Izumi nodded. “I wish I’d thought to invite them sooner.”

 _You didn’t have to invite them at all_ , Izumi didn’t say. Their summer vacations to Ember Island with Aang and Tenzin were perfect. She still didn’t understand why _Bumi_ and _Kya_ and everyone else had to be there. From what she remembered, Tenzin’s siblings were, in a word, annoying. His mother, Katara, was alright, if a little overbearing. And Sokka was...Sokka.

“Toph and Lin are coming too, right?” Izumi asked.

Zuko nodded. “And the baby, hopefully.”

Izumi echoed her father’s nod. She had probably met Lin when she was a baby, during the commemoration of her father’s statue in Republic City. Izumi had looked over the photos from that day before the two of them left the palace city. It was always a strange feeling, seeing the six heroes of the 100-Year War gathered into a frame together. Izumi had been told that these were the people who’d helped her father become the man he was today; yet half of them were strangers to her.

“What about the 25th anniversary?” Zuko asked.

“You didn’t let me go,” Izumi reminded him. “You though there might be — ”

“Danger, right,” her father finished. He had actually said “Ozai sympathizers,” pronouncing the previous Fire Lord’s name like it was a curse word. “You didn’t miss much,” he assured her. “Just a lot of speeches.”

Izumi nodded again. She had been just as glad not to go. Suki, Ty Lee and Mai had set up blankets on the floor of the bunker and brought snacks and told embarrassing stories about her dad when he was a teenager. They’d called it a “slumber party,” and she wouldn’t tell her dad this but it was the most fun she’d ever had in her life.

Apparently she had missed out, though—on seeing the other half of Team Avatar again.

Maybe if her father had let her go to the celebration, the two of them wouldn’t be here now, anxiously awaiting a reunion sans ceremony or celebration; a reunion for the sake of admitting that they needed one.

Zuko sat up suddenly. “That’s them!”

Izumi squinted into the sunlight to see where her father was pointing. Behind the glare she could make out the shape of a sky bison gliding towards them.

“They wouldn’t all fit on one—” Izumi began

“The rest of them must be on another bison,” Zuko said at the same time. He chuckled. “Make a wish,” he said, like he always did when they said the same thing at the same time; apparently it was good luck.

Izumi crossed her leg to the other side. (Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father do the same.) She took what she had always called a “bending breath”: a deep breath meant to calm and center her—usually used during firebending training, hence the name.

Part of her wanted to wish that there _wasn’t_ another sky bison coming, and that it was just Aang and Tenzin again, and maybe Katara. No one else.

But a princess is supposed to have gracious thoughts. Her father didn’t hold grudges or let his snap judgements about people affect the way he treated them. If Izumi was going to be Fire Lord someday, she needed to be able to do the same thing.

 _I wish for the strength to remain poised and gracious during this holiday,_ Izumi thought to herself. _And to avoid cursing in front of my father._

(All of her friends at school said “Agni Kai!” whenever they were mildly annoyed. The first time it had slipped out of Izumi’s mouth in front of her father, Zuko had been _livid_.)

“What did you wish for?” Zuko whispered.

Izumi didn’t lie to her father, as a rule. There was nothing to lie about, most of the time, no mistake or embarrassment that she wouldn’t trust him with. But her reluctance to share her summer vacation with people who were clearly so important to him seemed so…childish. So she didn’t tell him the whole truth, this time.

“I wished for a happy and safe summer holiday.”

Zuko smiled at her, the kind of smile that made the skin around his unscarred eye wrinkle. He stood up and held out a hand to help his daughter to her feet just as the sky bison began its descent towards the beach.

* * *

There was another bison, of course.

Sky bison weigh between 8 and 12 tons and can carry up to 3,000 pounds across a short distance. For a long trip though, like the one from Republic City to Ember Island, an adult bison can only carry about 1,000 pounds without getting tired. So Aang, Katara, Tenzin, a little girl about Tenzin’s age, and a baby arrived first, along with a lot more stuff than Aang and Tenzin usually brought.

Izumi recognized Appa landing on the beach and ran to say hello, while Zuko went to help Katara and the children with their stuff.

Appa grunted when he saw her. “You must be tired, buddy,” she said, rubbing his wet nose. He grunted again in agreement.

While most of her attention was focused on Appa, Izumi could see her father give Katara a kiss on the cheek and take the baby from her arms.

“Was that their first bison ride?” he asked.

As if in response to the question, the little girl Izumi didn’t recognize collapsed to the ground and vomited onto the sand.

“Like mother, like daughter,” Katara chuckled. She knelt down to the girl and placed a hand on her back before helping her up.

 _Oh, that must be Lin_ , Izumi though. She felt sorry for the little girl that her first impression on meeting new people was getting sick.

“It’s alright,” Zuko said, smiling as he bounced the baby—probably Lin’s sister. “I used to get seasick on ships all the time.”

“I’m okay, Mr. Fire Lord,” Lin said. She wiped her mouth and stomped her foot, bending a wave of sand to cover where she’d been sick.

Of course, Lin would remember the Fire Lord from the 25th anniversary celebrations. Izumi was the one who was new.

“You can call me Zuko, and it’s nice to see you again.” Zuko turned his attention to the baby. “And it’s very nice to meet you, little Suyin,” he cooed. He handed the baby back to Katara. “Where’s Toph?”

Izumi was just about to leave Appa to greet the others when she felt a whoosh of air behind her.

Izumi turned around and grinned. “Aang!” she cried, reaching up to wrap her arms around his neck.

“Good to see you, Zooms,” Aang replied. He wrapped his arms tight around her and lifted her up with a groan. “Aarrgh, you’re getting too big for me to do that!”

Izumi laughed. “Speaking of people getting too big—” She looked around for Tenzin. He was standing awkwardly behind his mother. His blue eyes grew wide when he saw her.

“Izumi!” he called out. He leapt up, using a gust of wind to propel his little body into Izumi’s arms.

“There he is!” she said as she caught him. Izumi pulled the little airbender close. “One of these days you’re going to knock me over doing that.” Tenzin giggled.

Aang smiled at them, then turned to make his way to the others. “Hey, where’s my kiss?” he asked, wrapping an arm around Zuko.

Zuko blushed, but obliged with a quick peck on Aang’s cheek. Katara laughed, a high bubbly sound that reminded Izumi of Tenzin.

Aang pulled Zuko into a proper hug. “Good to see you, Sifu Hotman.”

“Glad you could make it,” Zuko replied. “I’m guessing everyone else is—”

“You’ll hear them before you see them,” Katara said, rolling her eyes.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, the sound of whooping and cheering reached their ears. Izumi looked up and saw what looked like a very fat bird looping circles in the sky.

“That’ll be my other three kids,” Katara grumbled.

When the bison got close enough, Izumi could see that Sokka was driving, while two kids hung onto the front of the saddle and screamed.

The bison made one more loop before crash-landing into the beach, spraying sand everywhere. Appa gave a disdained snort.

“So, how much of our stuff did you dump in the ocean?” Katara asked her brother by way of greeting.

Sokka jumped down from the bison. “I didn’t dump _anything_ in the ocean, thank you very much. I tied it all down. I am the master bison packer!”

The two kids laughed, even though Izumi didn’t think it was a particularly funny thing to say.

“Mom! Mom! Can we go again!” the girl— _Kya_ —asked.

“Come on, you know she’ll say no,” the boy— _Bumi_ —said. “We’ll just have to get Uncle Sokka to take us when she’s not looking.”

“Kids, why don’t you go greet our host?” Katara said with a forced smile. She pushed the two rowdy children in Zuko’s direction.

Zuko spread his arms to give them hugs. “Kya, Bumi, it’s good to see you!”

The two kids froze in front of the Fire Lord and began a series of stiff, synchronized bows.

“Hotman,” Bumi said.

“Hotman,” Kya echoed.

Zuko’s smile dropped a little. “You know only your dad is allowed to call me that.”

“Sorry, Mr. Hotman,” Bumi and Kya said in unison.

Zuko reached out and ruffled their heads a little awkwardly.

“Okay, my turn,” Sokka said, playfully pushing his niece and nephew out of the way.

Zuko reached out an arm for a greeting, but Sokka pulled him into a hug.

Izumi looked away.

It wasn’t that Izumi disliked Sokka. No one really disliked Sokka. He was the beloved Head Councilman of Republic City for that reason; people liked him. Izumi just…didn’t know him that well. That’s what she told herself, anyway. She hadn’t seen much of him since she was a little kid. He wasn’t part of her life anymore.

Eventually her father broke the hug and Sokka turned to greet Izumi. “Good to see you, ‘Zumi, it’s been a while.”

Izumi nodded stiffly. “Good to see you too, Sokka,” she said. He continued to stand there, expecting _something_ , so Izumi hurriedly threw her arms around his waist and brought them back to her sides.

“Toph isn’t with you?” Zuko asked.

“Nope,” Sokka said. “She has ‘important police duties’ to attend to.” (He actually put air quotes around “important police duties.”)

Zuko looked disappointed. “So she just…sent her kids with you?”

“She’s coming later,” Aang assured him.

Sokka grinned. “Maybe she needs a little reminder of how much _fun_ we’re all having without her.” He turned to Zuko. “You have a phone here, right?”

Zuko blinked. “A what?”

“A _telephone_.”

“Yes, we do, dad. We got it last year,” Izumi reminded him.

“Yeah, of course, telephone,” Zuko nodded. “Is that one of yours?”

Sokka shrugged. “Depends who you ask.”

“And it makes calls across the ocean?” Aang asked. “Wow!”

The three of them started towards the house, Sokka explaining the process of laying phone cables along the ocean floor and how it had taken months to train the waterbenders and engineers, while Aang and Zuko listened intently. From what Izumi could hear, it the same information from the reports her dad was supposed to have read when he signed off on allocating Fire Nation funds for the project.

(Of course she read the reports that her father left on his desk. He had never said she couldn’t.)

Izumi glanced back at the bison. Appa’s saddle had been unloaded, but the other bison was fully laden and waiting patiently for someone to notice.

“Shouldn’t we, um—” Izumi tried to interrupt, gesturing back at the two bison.

Zuko’s head snapped back to look at her. “Right, your luggage!”

Aang stepped forward. “Here, I’ve got it.” His eyes flashed for just a moment before he began to spin the air in front of him into a tornado, lifting the unloaded trunks and sacks as well as a considerable quantity of sand.

“Hey Sweetie? How about we just carry them,” Katara said, grabbing a bag from the whirlwind.

“Fine,” Aang sighed. He lowered everything gently to the ground. “We’ll get the first batch while you kids start unloading Fu Fu.”

“I’ll supervise,” Katara added, eyeing her two oldest children.

Bumi was holding baby Suyin now. The way he was stretching his arms to keep her out of his sister’s reach while Kya clamored to take her was making Izumi nervous.

“I can hold her!” Kya insisted.

“Mom gave her to _me_ ,” Bumi taunted. Suyin started to cry. “Now look what you did!” Bumi snapped.

“Kids, I need someone _really strong_ to help me with this,” Katara called.

Kya immediately ran to her mother’s side. “Hey!” Bumi called after her. He looked around until his eyes settled on Izumi. “Here,” he said, shoving the baby unceremoniously into her arms. Before Izumi could respond, he had taken off after his mother and sister.

“Okay,” Izumi said to herself. Her dad and the other men were already carrying luggage into the house. “I guess I’ll hold the baby.”

“Hi!” a young voice called from below her. Izumi looked down to see the girl from before, the one who had thrown up.

 _Lin_ , Izumi reminded herself. She smiled at the girl, who must have been about six. “Hello.”

Lin pointed at the baby. “That’s my sister. She likes you.”

Izumi looked down and, sure enough, the baby was smiling. Happy not to be slung around like a sack of tomato-carrots, probably. Bumi had to be fourteen by now, he ought to know how to be gentle with a baby. She looked back up to see Tenzin in front of her as well.

“Izumi, this is Lin. She’s my friend,” Tenzin said seriously. “I’m glad you were able to make her acquaintance.”

Izumi couldn’t keep herself from smiling. She had always been described as "precocious" as a child, but Tenzin was something else. “Happy to meet both you and your sister, Lin. How old is she?”

“Either two months or six weeks depending on whether you want to count in months or weeks,” Lin replied.

Izumi was surprised at that. Suyin was _really_ small. Especially small to be traveling without her mother. Of course, Izumi had lost her mother when she was only an hour old. But her dad never would have let her travel this far without him as a baby. Only then did it occur to her that she had no idea who Suyin’s father was. That was a question for her dad for later.

“KYA NO!”

Izumi snapped her head up at the sound of Katara’s voice. She couldn’t make out what was happening, only that Tenzin’s two older siblings were caught in some kind of struggle with their mother, the luggage, and a large quantity of seawater. She shook her head and looked back down at the kids in front of her.

“So was it scary?” Izumi asked Lin, “traveling without your mom?”

Lin shook her head.

“Lin is very independent,” Tenzin explained.

Izumi pursed her lips. “I see.”

“Well if _you_ had just picked it up instead of trying to use _waterbending_ —”

Izumi cringed at the sound of Bumi’s voice cracking as he and Kya walked past, laden with luggage.

“I just thought if it worked for Dad—”

“He was using _air_ bending, dummy!” Bumi said.

“You’re the dummy!” Kya retorted. “What were you going to use, _dummy_ -bending?”

“No, _dummy_. I’m using my big muscles!”

“What muscles, _dummy_?”

“Kids, be nice!” Katara called after them. She had one of the trunks open in front of her and seemed to be bending water out of it. Katara looked up and met Izumi’s eyes with a smile. Just then, Suyin started to cry.

“I’ll take her upstairs,” Izumi called across the beach. Katara nodded, clearly relieved, and went back to work on the trunk.

“We should go help my mom,” Tenzin said. Lin followed him back over to the bison. For such little kids, they both carried themselves so much like adults. At least Katara and Aang only had to deal with two unruly, immature kids.

 _Gracious thoughts_ , Izumi reminded herself.

* * *

When she came back downstairs after putting Suyin to bed, Izumi couldn’t help but giggle at the sight that greeted her: the three most powerful men in the world, trying in vain to figure out the telephone.

Aang shook the receiver at Sokka. “I thought you said you invented this!”

“I said _it depends who you ask_. I had nothing to do with…” Sokka poked at the transmitter sticking out from the wooden box on the wall. “This.”

“Okay, this is the part you speak into,” Zuko said confidently taking the receiver from Aang. Izumi stifled a giggle. Her dad cleared his throat and spoke into the receiver:

“HELLO? THIS IS FIRE LORD ZUKO SPEAKING. HELLO, CAN YOU HEAR ME?”

Sokka snatched the receiver back from him. “Spirits, Zuko, you don’t need to yell!”

“But they’re all the way in Republic City—”

“I told you, that’s not how it works!”

“Because you obviously _know_ how it works,” Aang said, rolling his eyes.

The three of them continued to argue while poking and prodding the telephone in various places.

“Hey,” Izumi heard Katara say from behind her. “I didn’t get to say hi to you.”

Izumi turned around and gave her a quick hug. “It’s good to see you again, Katara.”

“You too, ‘Zumi.” Katara gave her a little squeeze before letting go. “We missed you at the anniversary last year,” she said. When Izumi didn’t respond, she added, “But Suki said you guys had fun?”

“Yeah,” Izumi said, smiling to herself. “She and Mai have a lot of embarrassing stories about my dad.” While the stories were funny, Izumi really just liked hearing about her dad’s past. He hardly ever talked about it and she didn’t like to press him for details.

“Well, if it’s embarrassing stories you want, I have plenty,” Katara said, grinning mischievously. “Did your dad tell you about the time he tied me to a tree?”

Izumi shook her head. “Was that…before or after you became friends?”

Katara laughed. “Before, definitely.” She looked back at the three men arguing over the phone. “How long do you think it’ll take them to ask for help?” she asked.

Izumi shrugged.

Katara sighed. “I just hope they don’t break that thing.”

“Maybe I should help them,” Izumi decided.

Just then, her father and his friends froze. They’d managed to reach the operator, whose tinny voice was coming out of the receiver.

“Hello?” Zuko said cautiously. The operator’s voice sounded again. “Hello, yes, I’m trying to reach someone. Toph Beifong. She’s in Republic City.”

Zuko was still speaking into the receiver, and Izumi could hear the operator growing more frantic.

“Can you hear me? CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW??”

“I told you, you don’t have to yell,” Sokka said.

“But he’s saying he can’t hear me!” Zuko protested.

Izumi could make out the operator saying something along the lines of, “Is the Princess with you?”

Finally, her dad looked back and saw her standing there. “Yes, she’s right here,” he sighed. He handed Izumi the receiver.

“Princess Izumi?” the operator asked hopefully.

“Hi Genji.” Izumi recognized his voice from the several other times she had had to help her dad make a phone call.

“It’s good to hear your voice, Your Highness!”

“Yeah, sorry about my dad,” she laughed, casting her father a smirk. He frowned grumpily, the way he often did when she was teasing him.

“It is an honor to serve the Fire Lord,” Genji replied dutifully. “How may I assist you?”

“We’re trying to reach Chief Beifong in Republic City,” Izumi explained.

“I’ll put you through.”

“Thanks, Genji!”

“My pleasure.” The line cut out. Only a few bursts of static and the faint sound of bells punctuated the silence—the sound of lines being connected in various telephone exchange offices from Ember Island to the United Republic.

Izumi kept the receiver to her ear as she turned to face the grownups. “This,” she said, pointing to the transmitter, which stuck out of the telephone box at face level (the better to speak into), “is the part you speak into.”

“I told you!” Aang said, exasperated. He turned and saw Katara standing in the hallway, still smirking at them. “Hi, Sweetie,” Aang said sheepishly.

“So this is what you’ve been doing instead of helping us unpack,” Katara teased. “Good thing Izumi was here to rescue you.”

“We would have figured it out eventually,” Sokka insisted. Katara raised an eyebrow at him.

Izumi heard a voice coming from the receiver. “Republic City Police Department, what’s your emergency?”

Izumi stepped back up to the telephone box. “Oh, no, it’s not an emergency! We just wanted to talk to Chief Beifong.”

“Chief Beifong isn’t taking calls right now. Would you like to leave a message?”

Izumi turned back to face the adults. “He wants to know if we want to leave a message.”

“Oh, come on, Toph!” Aang said. Izumi handed him the receiver. “Hi, _Avatar_ Aang here. We _really_ need to talk to Toph.” The operator spoke again. “Well, maybe it is an emergency! Her friends miss her, isn’t that an emergency? Hello?” Aang turned to face Izumi. “I think they hung up.”

Izumi took the receiver again. She flipped the switch to dial the operator and waited to be connected.

“Hello?”

“Hi Genji. Could you put us through again?”

“Of course, Your Highness,” he said cheerfully.

The group waited in silence for the call to go through.

“They should play music during this part,” Aang said after a moment. Everyone looked at him incredulously. “What?”

The Republic City operator’s voice came through again. “Let me try this time,” Sokka said. Izumi handed him the receiver and pointed to the transmitter for good measure, then stepped away. “Hello? This is Councilman Sokka, and I have an _urgent_ message for Chief Beifong.” He looked back at the others with a mischievous grin on his face. “You see, baby Suyin is hungry, but I don’t remember whether we’re supposed to heat up her bottles.”

Her dad furrowed his (one) eyebrow. “She’s not going to buy that.”

“She might,” Aang said.

“Okay, thanks,” Sokka said. He looked around, trying to figure out where to put the receiver. He finally gave it to Izumi, who hung it up on its hook on the side of the box.

Less than a minute later, the bells at the top of the telephone box began to ring, startling all the adults. Izumi picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Chief Beifong for Councilman Sokka,” Genji said on the other side.

“I’ll put him on.” Izumi handed the receiver to Sokka.

“Sokka here,” he said smugly. A moment later, an angry female voice came through the receiver. Sokka flinched at the sound before handing the receiver to Zuko.

Zuko stepped up to the telephone box and spoke. “Hi Toph,” he said sweetly.

Toph’s tone changed immediately, though she was just as loud.

“Yes, both your girls are fine,” Zuko assured her. “Lin threw up, but she’s alright now. Su’s taking a nap. Yes, we put her bottles in the ice box as soon as we got here.” Toph sounded like she was giving instructions now. Zuko made a few affirmative noises, then asked, “When are you coming down here? We miss you.”

Izumi could make out Toph saying, “I miss you too” on the other end.

She turned to Katara and said, “I’m going to go check on the baby.”

“She’s fine. Bumi’s with her,” Katara assured her.

“Yeah, I’m gonna go check on her.” Izumi cast one last glance at her dad on the phone. He was finally holding the receiver correctly. And he was smiling. He’d been smiling more in the past hour than he ever did at home.

Something stirred in Izumi’s stomach that she didn’t have a name for. She pushed the feeling down and turned to go upstairs.

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on [tumblr](https://gaylord-zuko.tumblr.com)!


End file.
